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Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Wal-Mart

Celebrate Urban Birds!

 

Wal Mart and Indiana schools Celebrated Urban Birds this spring. Learn about this model partnership, which linked a business, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and schools for a great cause! Chad Williams, a management level Walmart employee, distributed 750 Celebrate Urban Birds kits to 13 schools in East Indianapolis and East Central Indiana.

Chad writes, "I think this would be a great way for Wal Mart to reach out to some of our local school age children to bring them closer to nature"

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Scrapbook 13

A scrapbook page created by one of the classrooms in the Walmart Celebrate Urban Birds project.   

 

(Click on each scrapbook page to see a larger view) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wal Mart area representatives delivered the Celebrate Urban Bird kits, bird feeders (medium size feeder to accommodate a variety of birds), a 20 lb bag of bird seed, color identification cards, and disposable cameras (Wal Mart paid for developing) to teachers.                                   

Scrapbook 1

 Wal Mart encouraged 13 participating schools to do the Celebrate Urban Birds observation, take part in nature related activities, and take pictures. Students took their kits home to collect data with their families.Each classroom completed a classroom scrapbook and selected one class "birder". Wal Mart stores selected the winning scrapbook (one out of the 13 schools) and honored the school and all the chosen class "birders" with prizes ranging from field guides to binoculars!                               

Scrapbook 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And many thanks to the participating schools and the representatives from Walmart who helped them Celebrate Urban Birds:

Northwood Elementary, Franklin, IN (Lin L.)

Eastwood Elementary, New Castle, IN (Shay R.)

Southport Elementary, Indianapolis, IN (Brent L.)

Morristown Elementary, Shelbyville, IN (Danny B.)

St. Mary's, Greensburg, IN (Gary W.)

Harris Elementary, Greenfield, IN (Lisa B.)

Frazee Elementary, Connersville, IN (Kim K.)

Grassy Creek Elementary, Indianapolis, IN (Betty S.)

St. Mary's, Rushville, IN (Matt A.)

10th St. Elementary, Anderson, IN (Lindsey M., Bobby W.)

Clark Elementary, Franklin, IN (Trent P., Jenny H.)

Starr Elementary, Richmond, IN (Chad B., Louis M.)

Learn more about Walmart's sustainability efforts:

http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/5127.aspx

Photo of team

 

Organization is important for  large scale outreach like this to succeed.  Below is the detailed timeline for the Indiana Walmart project! Feel free to adapt it for use with your own company or organization! 

Project Overview

 

  • Introduction Meeting 15 Management Sponsors
  • Schools to adopt are selected
  • Meeting is set up with school principal to discuss the program
  • Class or grade level to is selected to sponsor (1-4)
  • 1 or 2 classes may be selected or entire grade level; Principals decide what is best for schools.
  • Email addresses for participating principal and teachers are collected
  • Date is selected.  Preferably Earth Day (4/22) or other close date.
  • Information form is completed to send to back to Walmart team
  • Send completed information form to Walmart team
  • Packets are ordered from Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • Walmart team sends out email letter welcoming teachers and describing our initiative.
  • Meeting with sponsors at store
  • Packets are issued for each sponsor to take to teachers.
  • Packets and other supplies are delivered to teachers
    • Urban Birds Packets
    • Bird Feeder (medium size feeder to accommodate a variety of birds)
    • Bird Seed (20lb) bag
    • Color Identification Card
    • Disposable Camera (WM to pay for developing)
  • Walmart contacts each teacher to answer any questions
  • Schools  Celebrate Urban Birds!
    • Teachers to take part in nature related activities.
    • Take pictures!
    • Students take packets home to do activity with family
  • Students do project with family and/ or friends.
  • Students discuss experience with teachers.
  • Teachers and students  complete a classroom scrapbook to share urban birds experience and what they learned!
  • Each teacher selects one student who took the lead in the program as the official class “Birder'
  • Sponsors pick up scrapbooks and names of one leading student by class.  Scrapbooks will be returned to the teacher.
  • Sponsor meeting at store at 2pm.
  • Select winning scrapbook 1 out of 13 schools.
  • All selected leader students will receive prize.
  • Organize prizes.
  • Store manager/ sponsor meets with teachers, principal, and winning students.
  • Walmart store manager, sponsor meets with the winning school.

 

Prizes

 Winning class “Birder” selected by each Teacher

·         Field Guide to Birds of North American (Kaufman)

 Winning Class (1 our of 13)

·         1 Pair of Binoculars

·         1 Field Guide of North American Birds

·         1 Bird.  The Definitive Visual Guide (for the School Library)

·         $100.00 Donation to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the schools name

 
Scrapbook 3
Scrapbook 4
Scrapbook 5
Scrapbook 6
Scrapbook 7
Scrapbook 8
Scrapbook 9
Scrapbook 10
Scrapbook 11
Scrapbook 12

 

And not only did kids observe and document birds, but they were inspired to write poetry!
poems 1

 
and even more poems

 

And the man behind all this is Mr. Chad WIlliams, who has gotten more and more excited about birding, and recently took his first birding trip Costa Rica....

Chad Williams

Chad writes,"

13 Wal-Mart Stores (and many dedicated members of management) in East Central Indiana each adopted a classroom (some more than one) in their local community to encourage and support local students in becoming aware of their natural surroundings.  We did this using the program 'Celebrate Urban Birds' which was discovered on the internet.  I decided to use this program since it would be both fun and informative to the students and would coincide with Wal-Mart's efforts of supporting local environmental sustainability.  To make the program even more exciting, each classroom created a scrapbook of their celebration to enter into a contest that would make 1 classroom  the 'Classroom Birders of 2008' and would win the class a pair of Binoculars, a Field Guide to Birds of North America by Ken Kaufman, the book - Bird. by Ben Hoare and a $100 donation to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Each teacher was also asked to select one student as the 'Class Birder of 2008'.  This student received a Field Guide Birds of North American by Ken Kaufman.
 
The program was delivered to approximately 700 student throughout the Market 358 area.  The program was a huge success which could easily be seen in the time and effort that was put into each an every scrapbook!  The teachers were all very appreciative and most have stated they would love to do the program again.  To see the students get so excited over a bird that they otherwise may have never noticed was worth its weight in gold.
 

I am hoping to do this program again next year and would encourage other companies to get involved as well!  This is such an easy and inexpensive way to support the environment and create an awareness of the natural world that surrounds us every day.  It's nice to know that there are potentially 700 new environmental advocates out there as a result of this program!

Please visit  http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/5127.aspx

It's a great link that shows Wal-Mart's commitment to our environment."